County May Reassess Its Decision To Reject Child-abuse Funding

February 14, 2000|By Steve Stanek. Special to the Tribune.

The McHenry County Board may reconsider Tuesday whether to accept a state child-abuse prevention grant rejected two weeks ago because of confidentiality concerns and the possibility of wrongly labeling parents as potential child abusers.

Board member Dick Meyers said he has changed his mind and will not oppose it if he gets questions answered on those issues and whether similar programs have been successful in other states.

He made his change of heart known late last week during a meeting of the county Public Health and Human Services Committee, where representatives of several social service agencies argued on behalf of Healthy Families Illinois, the program that would be funded by the $102,800 grant.

Leading the fight against the grant has been board member Donald Brewer.

"This is a prime example of government intruding on the rights and privacy of individuals," Brewer said.

He feared parents would be labeled potential child abusers, "and once people are labeled, they're labeled for life."

Meyers voiced similar concerns.

"My chief question is whether this is an intrusion on confidentiality," said Meyers, who is a retired public school teacher and one who has seen supposedly confidential information on students become public knowledge.

The program would link the McHenry County Health Department and Centegra Health System, which runs Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry and Memorial Medical Center in Woodstock.

The hospitals would interview parents of newborns to evaluate whether they have risk factors that would indicate a heightened chance of abusing their children. Those factors include a having a history of drug or alcohol abuse, growing up in an abusive household and being poor.

Parents with risk factors would be informed of the program, which would offer such services as child-rearing information, stress management education and counseling.

The decision to participate would be voluntary.

Sixteen of the county board's 24 members must vote to accept the grant.

The measure failed by two votes on Feb. 1.

Social service agency representatives who would receive Health Department referrals under the Health Families Illinois program tried to address Meyers' concerns about disclosure.

"The law states that we can only disclose information under a subpoena," said Lou Ness, executive director of Turning Point, a Woodstock-based agency that helps victims of domestic abuse.